1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an arrangement for manufacturing hot-rolled steel strip etc. from continuously cast initial materials in continuously successive work steps, wherein the continuously cast initial material is cut after solidifying to a certain length, is heated in a soaking furnace to rolling temperature and is introduced into a finishing rolling mill train for rolling out.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method for manufacturing hot-rolled steel strip is known from German Offenlegungsschrift 33 41 745. In accordance with this method, the strip-like billet arriving from the casting plant is wound into a coil and is again unwound after being heated and is introduced into a rolling mill to be rolled out to obtain the final cross-section. The casting plant includes several lines and the billets are arranged parallel in rolling direction. In addition, a furnace serving as an intermediate storage unit is arranged for receiving all billets transversely of the continuous casting plant and, thus, the furnace must have the appropriate width. The method has the disadvantage of high investment and operating costs, particularly for the furnace used for receiving the billets which are introduced parallel to each other which furnace must be of large and wide construction.
Moreover, for manufacturing hot-rolled steel strip from continuously cast initial materials, a German patent application which is not yet published provides that two strip-shaped initial material billets are heated to rolling temperature placed one above the other and together in a roller-bottom-type furnace and are individually rolled out successively in a finishing rolling mill train to obtain the finished strip. One of these billets which emerge from the roller-bottom-type furnace are introduced into a furnace which serves as an intermediate storage unit in which the strip-shaped billet is wound into a coil and is maintained hot until it is introduced into the finishing rolling mill train.
It is the primary object of the present invention to substantially improve the methods and arrangements described above, particularly the last-mentioned method for manufacturing hot-rolled steel strip, etc.